Do you have an answer?
Some of you know that I volunteer for a sort of advocacy group, mostly focusing on lower income and illegal workers, both legal and illegal. For over a year now, it has mostly been about prostitution, homelessness, unemployment, the usual thing one thinks about when one thinks about these things.
But things have changed. And the change is scary. I am scared. I am seeing it happen, right in front of me, real-time.
Two weeks ago, I received a call that a woman I know who has been working as a housemaid in the U.S. for 14 years had been arrested by ICE and was going to be deported. I had to go pick up her children at her home, because the children had been taught not to open the door for strangers, and that the people outside were police officers did absolutely nothing to reassure them. The only reason they came out for me was because they knew me personally, and because I convinced the Child Welfare lady to send the cops away.
Here's the thing: The Child Welfare lady let me take the children. She let me take them to someone else I knew who was an acquaintance of the arrested lady. I'm not sure how many of you have ever worked with Child Welfare, but they don't do that sort of thing without knowing every little detail about it. Most of them truly do care about the welfare of the children. And, I suspect that is why the lady let me take care of them. Because wherever she was meant to take them, she decided that the kids would be in a better place where I took them.
What about their mother? She was arrested at the police station. She was there because she was filling out a witness report to a crime she saw happening to someone else. I'm still working with the legal rep. They want to deport her to Mexico. She's from Venezuela. She's currently in a cell with a woman who shot another woman over a boyfriend. At least that woman has a different bar regarding what should be considered illegal behavior.
Some people here like to argue politics as a hobby. They like to think of these things theoretically. They don't think they do, heck, they have even sometimes convinced themselves they really sincerely care about the topic, and that they are personally affected by it. But here's the thing: How are you being affected? What have you seen? What has affected you personally?
Last week, I was talking to the pastor at a little church. He needed advice on the tunnels he was digging out of his church to a nearby building. He wanted to make sure his safe room was safe and hidden. Why? Because sometimes, homeless immigrants came into the church seeking shelter, or simply because they needed spiritual support, and since they did, ICE decided to wait by the watering hole, to catch and question them on the way out.
Do you understand what is happening in this country, right now? Churches are building escape tunnels.
What for? Is it just so they can avoid the front door and then carry on happily in that neighborhood? No. Once you are targeted, you need to get out of the country. Not the neighborhood, not state, the country. Because ICE doesn't give a damn about you or your family. They will separate you and send you to Mexico, and if that rips you away from your kids, oh well, you will catch them later probably, or not.
Canada is receiving refugees from America. Refugees from America. Let that sink in. People are so scared of their families being torn apart by American law enforcement, that they are hiding in tunnels and traveling across the entire freaking country to escape to Canada. They are literally crossing deserts and snow fields, at night, to escape.
That is what America has become. A country of hidden rooms and tunnels to protect refugees. Of Child Welfare agents willing to look the other way, so that families have a chance of staying together. Last week, American citizens were required to show their citizenship papers to get off a plane that had neither departed nor landed from a foreign country. Muhammad Ali Jr, and his Grandmother were approached by LEO and questioned about their religion. Do you think that having legal papers will save you? The president signed an EO that detained legal visa and green card holders. This is not about having the legal papers. That's just the excuse.
What is it going to take? What is your cut-off?
If the private prison corporations start building temporary camps for illegal immigrants, is that going to be okay? Beats putting them in actual jails, right? We don't want to be uncivilized about this.
How about we use those camps for marijuana users as well? Sure, the government is talking about going after marijuana users as well, but they aren't criminals, right? They would be safer in camps, rather than prisons, right?
Where is your line, people? Where?
Are you willing to carry and show your papers on demand, like the people on that plane did? That happened. It isn't theoretical. It happened.
Are you willing to be questioned about your religion? It is happening. Right now, as we speak, there are police officers questioning people on the suspicion of being Muslim. Where is your line?
There are secret safe houses for good people who are trying to keep their families together. There are secret escape tunnels to keep those people away from law enforcement trying to send them away to a country they may or may not be a citizen of. That's happening.
It may not happen to you. If you are white, it won't happen. But maybe it'll happen to a friend of yours. Maybe you don't even remember that they aren't white, just because you've know them for so long, and their race just isn't an issue with you. How involved are you? How much in danger are you? Is it just politics, or is it actually a part of your life?
When I went to talk to the housekeeper, ICE demanded to see proof of my citizenship. I was born in California. I have an Associates, a Bachelors, and a Masters degree. I served as both enlisted, and as an officer, in the U.S. Navy. I have fought in two wars for this country. None of that mattered. The only reason I was approached and questioned was because my skin is brown. The only reason I was not detained was because my day job is with a federal analyst group, my boss outranks the ICE captain.
This isn't politics for me. This is my daily life. I get stopped. I get questioned. I get detained. People I know are having their families torn apart. People I know are trying to escape the country. And people, like the pastor at the church, and the lady from Child Welfare, they also know things are happening, and they are doing what they can to help. They knew where the line was, and when that line was crossed, they took action.
What's your line? Have you even thought about it?
13 Comments
Recommended Comments
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now